Perusing the Guardian this morning, I came across this story of lesbians in South Africa being raped by men, who are attempting to ‘correct’ their sexuality with violence. Honestly, the first thing I thought of was Jack Nicholson’s delusional state in The Shining where Nicholson is talking to the ghost-butler, who’s saying how he had to ‘correct’ (read: kill) his wife and children. Gave me shivers down my spine.
The violence began with the brutal killing of Eudy Simelane in April 2007. She was found dead in a ravine in Kwa Thema, just outside Johannesburg, after she’d been gang-raped and stabbed 25 times in the face among other places. Simelane was the first women in Kwa Thema to live openly as a lesbian…2007. Since then, the violence against lesbian women has risen in the African country. While groups are lobbying for crimes like these to be classified as not only murder and rape but hate crimes as well, it seems that South African legislators are largely ignoring this rash of violence against women.